Sundowns still clear favourites despite Sekhukhune surge - Eric Tinkler

Two goals from veteran striker Bradley Grobler and a strike by Thabang Monare handed Babina Noko the spoils, which saw Sekhukhune move two points clear at the summit with 16 points from six matches.

Despite their unbeaten run, Tinkler was quick to shift the spotlight away from his players, stressing that reigning champions Mamelodi Sundowns remain the benchmark.

"I think we're definitely on the right path because of the results we are achieving, and everybody has spoken about Sundowns being poor, but Sundowns a couple of hours ago were sitting top of the League – that's a fact," said Tinkler.

"We've all got to compete against Mamelodi Sundowns, even when they go through a tough patch, but that rough patch is not a rough patch because ultimately they achieved 11 points out of five [matches].

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"So to say that they're going through a bad spell, I find that difficult to believe. They've got a lot of quality and I still think they are firm favourites to win the league because of the depth that they have in their squad.

"The rest of us, our job – and my job as a coach – is we want to close that gap, that's what we want to do, and that's the objective that I set at the beginning of the season, can we ensure we start collecting more points to make life a bit more difficult for Sundowns.

"But I think it would be very, very premature for me to be saying, 'Yeah, we're going to compete for the league', it's only six games in and a lot of things can happen in a short space of time."